Word.ws English Dictionary

strait

/stɹeɪt/

strait adjective: narrow; restricted as to space or room; close. Also the obsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight.

strait: narrow; restricted as to space or room; close
Image: K. Aainsqatsi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

  1. (archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
    • Sweet oil was poured out on thy head
      And ran down like cool rain between
      The strait close locks it melted in.1866, Algernon Swinburne, “Aholibah”, in Poems and Ballads, London: John Camden Hotten, page 311
    • Where shall we keep the holiday,
      And duly greet the entering May?
      Too strait and low our cottage doors,
      And all unmeet our carpet floors; […]1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 14–15
  2. (archaic) Righteous, strict.
    • to follow the strait and narrow
    • [he] takes on him to reform
      Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
      That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
    • Palamon. […] Stay a little,
      Is not this peece too streight?
      Arcite. No, no, tis well.1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act...
  4. (obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
    • After the noble Prince Leonatus had by his fathers death succeeded in the kingdome of Galatia, he (forgetting all former iniuries) had receiued that naughtie Plexirtus into a streight degree of fauour […]a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
  5. (obsolete) Difficult; distressful.
    • 18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253,
      But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to indulge in Trifles and Vanities, delicate Food, shewish...
  6. (obsolete) Parsimonious; stingy; mean.
    • […] I do not ask you much,
      I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait
      And so ingrateful, you deny me that.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Noun

strait (plural straits)

  1. A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
    • the Strait of Gibraltar
    • […] we steered directly through a large Out-let, which they call a Streight, tho’ it be fifteen Miles broad […]1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC...
  2. A narrow pass, passage or street.
    • He brought him through a darksom narrow strayt,
      To a broad gate all built of beaten gold:1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 282
    • For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
      Where one but goes abreast:c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. A neck of land; an isthmus.
    • The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
      Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
      And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
      A broken chancel with a broken cross,
      That stood on a dark strait of barren land.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 4
  4. (in plural, often) A difficult position.
    • to be in dire straits
    • […] let no man, who owns the Belief of a Providence, grow desperate or forlorn, under any Calamity or Strait whatsoever […]1684, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Westminster-Abbey” in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 420

Verb

strait (third-person singular simple present straits, present participle straiting, simple past and past participle straited)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To confine; put to difficulties.
    • After Bardus, the Celtes […] were in short tyme, and with small labour broughte vnder the subiection of the Giaunt Albion, the sonne of Neptune, who altering the state of things here in this yland, straited the name of Celtica and the Celtes within the boundes of Gallia […]1577, Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed’s Chronicles, volume 1, London: The Historie of Englande, page 3
    • […] If your lass
      Interpretation should abuse and call this
      Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
      For a reply […]c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To tighten.

Adverb

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

  1. (obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.
    • Lords, take your places; and, I pray you all,
      Proceed no straiter ’gainst our uncle Gloucester
      Than from true evidence of good esteem
      He be approved in practise culpable.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Proper noun capitalized: Strait

Strait (plural Straits)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

strait is also the obsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight.

strait meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

strait in Hindi

narrow channel of water
जलसंधि jalsandhi, जलसंयोगी jalsãyogī, जलडमरू jalḍamrū, जलडमरूमध्य jalḍamrūmadhya, तंगी taṅgī, आबनाए ābnāe

strait in Tamil

narrow channel of water
நீரிணை nīriṇai

strait in Marathi

narrow channel of water
सामुद्रधुनी sāmudradhunī

strait in Urdu

narrow channel of water
آبْنائے ābnāe, آب نائے āb nāe
More languagesFewer languages
strait in Bengali
প্রণালী pronali, প্রণালি pronali
strait in Telugu
జలసంధి jalasandhi
strait in Malayalam
കടലിടുക്ക് kaṭaliṭukkŭ, ജലസന്ധി jalasandhi
strait in Kannada
ಜಲಸಂಧಿ jalasandhi
strait in Punjabi
ਪਣਜੋੜ paṇjoṛ
strait in Gujarati
સામુદ્રધુની sāmudradhunī
strait in Odia
ଷ୍ଟ୍ରେଟ୍, ଷ୍ଟ୍ରାଟ୍
strait in Sinhala
සමුද්රසන්ධි samudrasandhi
strait in Nepali
जलसन्धि jalasandhi
strait in Pashto
آبنا ābná, ترۍ tarǝ́y
strait in Tagalog
kipot
strait in Arabic
مَضِيق maḍīq, مُخْتَنَق muḵtanaq, بُوغَاز būḡāz
strait in Malay
selat
strait in Indonesian
selat
strait in Thai
ช่องแคบ chɔ̂ng-kɛ̂ɛp
strait in Vietnamese
eo biển
strait in Myanmar
ရေလက်ကြား relakkra:, ပင်လယ်လက်ကြား panglailakkra:

Examples of strait in a sentence

  • After being shipwrecked on the island, we were in dire straits.
  • Farmer Jones is in straits because his baler is broken down and he's got three fields of hay ready to bale.
  • Graziers on the tablelands are in dire straits because they do not have enough winter feed and will have to keep reducing stock.

All 21 example sentences with strait

Forms of strait

Adjective
comparativestraiter
superlativestraitest
alternative form (obsolete)streit
alternative form (obsolete)streight
Noun
pluralstraits
Verb
third-person singular presentstraits
present participlestraiting
past participlestraited
paststraited
Adverb
comparativestraiter
superlativestraitest
Proper noun
pluralStraits

Plural of strait: straits

Origin of strait

From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

Words formed from strait

Phrases with strait

41 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with strait

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about strait

What does strait mean?
Strait means narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
What is strait in Hindi?
Strait in Hindi is जलसंधि (jalsandhi), जलसंयोगी (jalsãyogī), जलडमरू (jalḍamrū). See Strait meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is strait?
Strait can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce strait?
Strait is pronounced /stɹeɪt/.

Words near strait in the dictionary

  1. strains the potatoes
  2. strainsome
  3. straint
  4. straintronic
  5. straintronics
  6. strait
  7. strait and narrow
  8. strait jacket
  9. strait jackets
  10. Strait of Bab el Mandeb
  11. Strait of Bonifacio

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strait (page history and authors); Strait (page history and authors); strait (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-strait.ogg.

Cite this entry: “strait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/strait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.